Obama on Islamic tour, takes time out for Conan VIDEO

By April MacIntyre Jun 3, 2009, 14:44 GMT

US President Barack Obama (L) shakes hands with Saudi King Abdullah who presented him with a gift of a gold necklace at the King\'s Farm in Janadriyah, Saudi Arabia on 03 June 2009. Obama is attempting to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by visiting Abdullah and delivering a major speech in Cairo later this week. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

President Barack Obama is currently touring the Middle East, promoting the idea America is in his words, one of the biggest Muslim populated countries in the world. He said, "if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."

Obama visits Riyadh on Wednesday and Cairo on Thursday.

The president, who distanced himself from his Islamic familial connections when trying to get elected - now fully embraces the "Hussein" - his middle name that honors his Islamic father.

The Telegraph (UK) noted that Obama has been slowly working his full name into the ether when he was recorded in Strasbourg two months ago saying his full name, then in Ankara, according to the Telegraph, "he was introduced to the Turkish parliament by his full name."

ABC reporters Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller have also noted that the Obama administration is not downplaying the Muslim connection for the president

The two reporters revealed in an interview with France's Canal Plus (released on Tuesday evening), Obama suggested that the United States might be a Muslim country. Obama said he wanted to "create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what's happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians."

They also noted that during the 2008 campaign, Obama's campaign "Fight the Smears" website addressed the candidate's faith without mentioning his father's religion: "Barack Obama is a committed Christian. He was sworn into the Senate on his family Bible. He has regularly attended church with his wife and daughters for years. But shameful, shadowy attackers have been lying about Barack’s religion, claiming he is a Muslim instead of a committed Christian. When people fabricate stories about someone’s faith to denigrate them politically, that’s an attack on people of all faiths. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this deception."

Obama took time out from his busy Middle-Eastern tour to appear on Conan:

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